February 26, 2020 4:16 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The owner of four Pittsburgh area grocery stores has admitted pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars by claiming customers used coupons he had employees take out of unsold newspapers. Michael Mihelic pleaded guilty Monday to theft by deception and was sentenced to four years of probation. Authorities said the 60-year-old Franklin Park man made roughly $300,000 through the scam but has already paid $275,895 in restitution. Mihelic directed staff at his four Shop ‘n Save supermarkets to cut out the coupons, which were then submitted for credit. A former employee told investigators the practice began under Mihelic’s late father and continued after Mihelic took over.
February 26, 2020 3:19 am
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The Ohio Senate has approved a resolution calling on the U.S. Congress to put the country permanently on daylight saving time. Resolution sponsor Sen. Kristina Roegner is a Republican from Hudson in northeastern Ohio. She calls the twice-yearly switch between standard and daylight saving time “government-induced biannual jetlag.” The resolution is one of several bills and resolutions approved by state legislatures calling on Congress to pass its “Sunshine Protection Act of 2019.” U.S. lawmakers have introduced bills to make the change, and even President Donald Trump has tweeted that he’s in favor of the idea.
February 26, 2020 2:51 am
(WPXI) — A private high school in the North Hills will shut down at the end of the current school year, according to a press release. School officials with Vincentian Academy said they do “not have the financial resources” to continue offering classes. The Sisters of the Church of Nazareth, which runs the school, have been dealing with issues including declining enrollment and losing money. Vincentian Academy was founded as a school for young women “aspiring to the religious life” 87 years ago. The first students enrolled in 1939, the school became co-ed in 1975 and the facility entered into a partnership with Duquesne University in 1995. Principal/Head of School, Mrs. Rita Canton, said, “I was heartbroken to receive the news that our school is closing. Vincentian Academy is a close-knit family. You have students, parents, teachers who care about each other.” She noted the teachers’ commitment to their students. “We will now work to finish the academic year strong and assist our students and their parents with enrollment into a new school.”
February 26, 2020 2:38 am
(WPXI) – A Uniontown funeral home director who authorities said stole a half million dollars’ worth of prepaid funeral policy payments from the elderly was sentenced to prison on Tuesday.
Stephen Kezmarsky has been sentenced to four to eight years in prison, 20 years of probation and $555,000 in restitution. Kezmarsky pleaded guilty in October 2019 and owes more than $500,000 to clients for prepaid funeral expenses. According to the Office of Attorney General Josh Shapiro, Kezmarsky accepted the payments from 2005 until 2017 but never submitted the policies to the insurance company. “Anyone who defrauds Pennsylvanians, especially vulnerable people planning for the end of their lives, will be held to account for their crimes,” Shapiro said. “For 12 years, Kezmarsky deceived dozens of Pennsylvanians who believed they were making final plans, and now he will spend a long time behind bars and repay what he stole.”
February 25, 2020 5:24 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) – The National Transportation Safety Board says the driver of a Tesla SUV who died in a Silicon Valley crash two years ago was playing a video game on his smartphone while his vehicle was being controlled by a partially automated driving system. Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the start of a hearing Tuesday that systems like Tesla’s Autopilot cannot drive themselves. Yet he says drivers continue to use them without paying attention. The board will determine a cause of the crash at the hearing and make recommendations to prevent it from happening again.
February 25, 2020 8:49 am
PITTSBURGH — (WPXI) – The man investigators said kidnapped and killed a Bethel Park woman in the Nevada desert is now facing federal charges. 40 year old John Chapman is now charged with kidnapping resulting in death, among other charges. In court documents, FBI agents said neighbors told them they had not seen Jaime Feden or her special access van in months. But they did see Chapman coming and going from her apartment. Feden was last seen by her family and friends Sept. 15 before she took a trip to Las Vegas with Chapman. He lured her into the desert outside Las Vegas under the pretext of conducting a photoshoot, investigators said. According to court documents, once Chapman got to the desert, he bound her hands and feet with zip ties and tied her to a signpost. He allegedly put duct tape on her mouth and nose until she couldn’t breathe and watched her as she died from asphyxiation. Investigators said that once he came back to Bethel Park. Chapman stayed at Feden’s house, passing it off as his own. In addition to the federal charges, local law enforcement in Nevada said they were filing murder charges against Chapman there.
February 25, 2020 8:42 am
CAIRO (AP) – Egypt’s state TV says former President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, has died at 91. It says he died at a Cairo hospital where he had recently undergone surgery. The report said he had health complications but offered no other details. Mubarak ruled the most populous Arab country for nearly three decades, serving as a loyal U.S. ally against Islamic militancy and assisting regional peace efforts. But his autocratic rule grew increasingly unpopular in his later years, and he was forced to resign on Feb. 11, 2011, after 18 days of mass protests.
February 25, 2020 4:16 am
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – The State newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, is endorsing Democrat Pete Buttigieg for president. The editors of South Carolina’s largest newspaper write in an editorial posted late Monday that the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is “the energetic, disciplined candidate who can offer voters a powerful yet pragmatic vision.” The piece notes Democrats’ past success with younger outsiders such as Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. At 38, Buttigieg is younger than any of them. Buttigieg has struggled to attract support from African Americans, but the editors credit him for accepting “responsibility to build trust with African American voters.”
February 25, 2020 4:15 am
DETROIT (AP) – Ford is recalling more than 217,000 pickup trucks mainly in North America to fix a problem with the daytime running lights. The recall covers certain F-150 trucks with LED headlights from the 2018 through 2020 model years. The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker says the running lights will keep working if the driver moves the headlight switch from auto to the low beam position. U.S. safety standards require vehicles to change to parking lights in that case. The problem could reduce visibility to other drivers, but Ford says it doesn’t know of any crashes. Dealers will update software to fix the problem.
February 25, 2020 4:12 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House has sent lawmakers a $2.5 billion urgent budget plan to address the deadly coronavirus outbreak, whose rapid spread is spooking financial markets and restricting international travel. That’s according to the White House budget office, which says the funds are for vaccines, treatment and protective equipment. The request could advance quickly through Congress. It comes as coronavirus fears are credited with a 1,000-plus point drop in the Dow Jones index and are increasingly seen as a potential political threat to President Donald Trump.
